Boise State men’s golf prepares for challenge at Chambers Bay

Coming off of one of the most impressive performances this seasons at the Duck Invitational, the Broncos head coach Kevin Burton wants his team to find a way to carry that confidence into this week’s Redhawk Invitational hosted by Seattle University.

“That’s the key,” Burton said. “It’s a lot of hard work and a lot of confidence. We beat a lot of good teams there and we want to just keep building on that.”

Boise State will have plenty of opportunities to play against highly ranked competition this week. The Redhawk Invitational will be played at Chambers Bay Golf Club — the host course for the 2015 U.S. Open Championship.

According to Burton, a lot of teams across the country want to give their upperclassmen the experience at Chambers Bay in the event they have the opportunity to play in the U.S. Open next summer — something on the mind for junior Ty Travis.

“You know it’s a good course if the (United States Golf Association) is hosting an event there,” Travis said. “It’s awesome to play there again.”

Travis said the course at Chambers Bay is a harder course that is more of a links style course — ones that feature large slow greens and fast fairways.

According to Burton, at links style courses, the Broncos can’t afford to take any errant shots to get to par. For Boise State to be successful again, they just need to get past the hole and putt it in.

“If you try to get cute with a chip, you’re going to end up with that same chip,” Burton said. “We have to be smart with our shots.”

By making these adjustments, both Burton and Travis believe the Broncos can improve on some of the inconsistency they’ve faced this season.

Boise State’s lineup for the Redhawk Invitational will be an all-Idaho group with Travis and senior Jordan Skyles — both of whom earned automatic qualifications after their performances at the Duck Invitational — along with three true freshmen, David Elliott, Kyle Mitsunaga and Mark Brassey.

Teams in the field will include No. 15 UCLA, No. 17 Washington, as well as Arizona, Arizona State, North Carolina State, Oregon State and MWC rival Nevada.

“Our goal is to be one of the top teams in the nation,” Burton said. “We know we have some work to do, but we have the talent to get their.”

Only a sophomore, Nate has already become the big man on campus. He was named the Sports Editor after working as a staff writer his freshman year. With a future in coaching and teaching, Nate enjoys writing and covering sports on the side after spending the past three years in the business. Nate is a fitness and health junkie, and is also an extreme cinema buff. If you ever need to find Nate, he can usually be found on the top of Table Rock or on his couch binge watching Netflix.